Total Art Soul - for artists

I just loved this Paint swatch chandelier!  What a wonderful idea and those paint swatches you can pick up for free.  You can use an old lampshade and use the frame or pick up an old one from the thrift store.  You can also purchase them new in art and crafts shops but recycling makes this project more fun.

These are the materials you'll need:

- paint swatches in the same tones or you can use multi-colored if you prefer
- wire frame from old lampshade (this will hang upside down)
- large circular hole puncher
- cellotape
- cotton thread
- scissors

Start punching your circles from your paint swatches.  You'll need quite a few depending on the length you want your chandelier to be.  This project will take between 40-60 swatches.

Lay out your paint medallions, coloured side down, in the desired order. Tape down a long piece of coloured thread along the middle of the backs of each medallion. Then using a piece of tape, cut down the center width wise, tape together the edges where one medallion meets the next. Without this final piece of tape, the medallions with rotate on their piece of thread, thus showing the bar codes, text and colour names usually located on the backs of the paint swatches. If that doesn’t bother you then this step isn’t necessary! Repeat this step until all of your chandelier strands are strung and taped together.

Turn your lamp shade upside down and fasten it somewhere where it can hang freely. Start stringing on your strands along the perimeter of the bottom of the chandelier until the entire metal base is covered. Then start stringing strands along the widest ‘top’ of your chandelier so that the lowest part of your strand hits the mid point of the bottom layer. Continue this all the way around until the entire chandelier is covered. Add a ribbon to the metal pieces and you're ready to hang it!

The full tutorial can be seen here.

For tutorials on how to market yourself online, click here.

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We went mushroom picking here in France today.  The weather has been unusually mild so the mushrooms are super late this year.  We picked several kgs of Boletus or Porcini mushrooms which will make up some lovely meals.  I am making wild mushroom soup for Christmas day and I have already made a mushroom pate with walnuts which came from our walnut tree.

Whilst on our walk I also got creative with my camera.  Even though it's really not a great camera, it does take fairly good macro shots.  Here's just a few of them.

I think these are beef tongue mushrooms, they seem to always grow on tree trunks.

This is a Boletus or Porcini mushroom which is what we picked.  There are huge amounts of these this year.

This is some of the Boletus we picked.

Could not resist taking a shot of the holly berries.

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I like this idea because you can make it so personal.  It really is the perfect gift for Christmas when family time is so important.  This tutorial comes courtesy of A Yummy Mommy. (The full tutorial can be seen there)

Materials Needed:

Modge Podge or PVA glue
wooden blocks
foam
brush
photos printed on a laser printer (slightly smaller than the blocks)
cutter
letters (optional)

Cut all you scrapbook paper out to fit the squares and cut your pictures out. I really suggest a cutter here, it makes it way easier.

You then use your foam brush to apply a thin layer of Modge Podge to the block and apply the paper and the photos in whatever arrangement you desire. I like to use a plain or simpe paper for the blocks that I want to apply the letters to, it makes them easily readable.

Apply another thin layer of Modge Podge.

It is very important that you let the blocks dry completely between all steps. Wait a few hours or you could end up with a gooey mess. After they are dry, you can apply the rub-on letters to the blocks by... well... rubbing them on with the end of your foam brush.

Lightly sand the corners and edges (I use a 120-180 grit sandpaper)

Now use a tiny teeny amount of the paint and rub it on all the edges and corners.

And there you have it!  All done. :-)

If you don't want to make these yourself, they can be custom made at Inner Vision.

For tutorials on how to market yourself online, go here.

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